The Peddler's Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi

by Edward Cohen

Edward Cohen grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, the heart of the Bible Belt, thousand of miles from the northern centers of Jewish culture. As a child he sang "Dixie" in his segregated school, said the "sh'ma" at temple. While the civil rights struggle exploded all around, he worked at the family clothing store that catered to blacks.

His grandfather Moise had left Romania and all his family for a very different world, the Deep South. Peddling on foot from farm to farm, sleeping in haylofts, he was the first Jew many Mississippians had ever seen. Moise's brother joined him and they married two sisters, raising their children under one roof, an island of Judaism in a sea of southern Christianity.

In the 1950s, insulated by the extended family of double-cousins, Edward believed the world was populated totally by Jews--until the first day of school when he had the disquieting realization that he was the only Jew in his class. At times he felt southern, almost, but his sense of being an outsider slowly crystallized, as he listened to daily Christian school prayers tried to explain his annual absences to classmates who had never heard of Rosh Hashanah. At Christmas his parents' house was the only one without lights. In the seventh grade, he was the only child not invited to dance class.

In a compelling work that is nonfiction throughout but conveyed with a fiction writer's skill and technique, Cohen recounts how he left Mississippi for college to seek his own tribe. Instead, he found that among northern Jews he was again an outsider, marked by his southernness. They knew holidays like Simchas Torah; he knew Confederate Memorial Day.

He tells a story of displacement, of living on the margin of two already marginal groups, and of coming to terms with his dual loyalties, to region and religion. In this unsparingly honest and often humorous portrait of cultural contradiction, Cohen's themes--the separateness of the artist, the tug of assimilation, the elusiveness of identity--resonate far beyond the South.

Edward Cohen lives in Venice, California, where he is a freelance writer and filmmaker. Previously he was head writer and executive producer for Mississippi Educational Television, where he wrote numerous award-winning documentaries, including "Passover," "Hanukkah," and "The Last Confederates."

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Jewish, Judaism, Religion

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Edward Cohen was a former head writer and executive producer for Mississippi Educational Television, Cohen has produced a number of documentaries on southern or Jewish subjects, including Good Mornin’ Blues with B.B. King; The Islander, starring James Best; Passover; and Hanukkah, narrated by Ed Asner, all broadcast nationally by PBS. His other documentaries include The Parchman Trials (an exposé of Mississippi’s penal farm), and The Last Confederates (the story of the little known culture of the descendants of the expatriate Confederates who emigrated to Brazil after the Civil War). His documentary work has received numerous international film festival awards, as well as two CINE Golden Eagles.

More recently he wrote, produced, directed and edited The Natchez Jewish Experience for the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience. The film tells the bittersweet story of a once-thriving congregation in Natchez, Mississippi, now down to a handful of members dedicated to keeping their temple open until the last member shuts out the lights. The documentary won the Judah P. Magnes Museum Muse Award for Best Historical Documentary.

In 1999, he published The Peddler’s Grandson: Growing Up Jewish in Mississippi, a memoir in which he describes growing up in the heart of the Bible Belt in the 1950s. The book was honored by the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters as the winner of its nonfiction award in 2000. Cohen also was awarded the Mississippi Authors Award for Nonfiction by the Mississippi Library Association in 2000.

Today, Cohen lives with his wife and three cairn terriers in Venice, California, where he is a freelance writer and filmmaker

Reviews

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting memoir by Edward Cohen about being Jewish in a sea of the Protestant Bible belt in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1950s and 1960s. Cohen's family, descended from Romanian Jews who drifted to the American South as "peddlers" became middle class clothing merchants who struggled to maintain their Jewish identity in one of the more prejudiced parts of the United States during turbulent times.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

great book. it was interesting to read about a young jewish boy's view of the south during those turbulent times. i like memoirs and would like to read more of them than i do now.
it's a sweet read that i like a lot.

[Mindy Worley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved the view of southern life from the Jewish perspective; its not something you really get insight into very often. Well written, interesting, kept me reading.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable and easy read. It was interesting to read of his experience growing up Jewish in such a non-Jewish world. It left me sad though; knowing what his grandparents and great-grandparents went through to leave Europe for America, this seems to be the end of the Jewish line for them.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting memoir that delivers his impressions of a time and place, with an epilogue somewhat surprising given what's come before.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was surprised by the lack of anti-semitism that the author encountered in Jackson, Mississippi. I guess I assumed that it would be worse in civil rights era Mississippi. Most of the focus lay on a divided identity (Southern and Jewish) and the insularity of living as Jews in the South, similar to the immigrant experience of other groups.

I was especially interested in reading about Jackson in the 1950s-1960s, and wasn't disappointed. I enjoyed reading about the intersection of the author's experiences with the civil rights movement.

[Myra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fascinating to me. The author is almost exactly my age, so we both grew up Jewish in the south at the same time (high school graduating class of 1966). Both us us came from families that owned family businesses with extended family working together in the business. We had many of the same experiences being "other" in a white, southern Christian world, but we also had many unique experiences of our own. Encourages me to get back to writing my own memoir.

[Patricia O'Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this memoir of Ed Cohen's life in Mississippi during one of the most socially and politically difficult times in the state for Jews. Cohen's thoughts on how the Civil Rights Movement affected Mississippi's Jews are so interesting.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm fascinated by tales of the Jewish Southern experience, thanks to my own family's roots, and this memoir is particularly well-told.

[Edward Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw this book on a shelf in a store and picked it up on impulse. The title grabbed my eye. It was a delightful book.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Growing up Jewish in Jackson, Mississippi.
Not very well written, hard read

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent, well written, funny, poignant

[Jlnelso · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was incredibly enjoyable to read. I learned that religious differences can be truly isolating, even within a racial group, if you are in the religious minority in that place.

[Rosalyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just got bored in this book, it started out interesting but it just couldn't hold my interest.